First 200 Days
Mendoza getting the ball rolling

By Bill Donovan
Staff writer

GALLUP — When Harry Mendoza came in as mayor of Gallup a little more than six months ago, there was a question in the minds of many Gallupians as to what kind of mayor he would be.

They soon found out.

Within weeks of taking office of taking office, many of the people associated with the former administration — including the city clerk, the city manager and the police chief — were gone and Mendoza was involved in a controversy with the former mayor, Bob Rosebrough, over the condition of the city’s finances.

All of this led to more than a few headlines and a lot of questions but his supporters say Mendoza was never fazed and never once did he falter in carrying out his program to make the changes he said during his campaign needed to be done to get the city back on track.

A former city councilor, probate judge and county commissioner, Mendoza had spent almost 20 years in the public eye before deciding to run for mayor on a platform of ending wasteful spending and providing more services to the people of Gallup.

With the support of most members of the city council, Mendoza has had no problem in implementing his changes.

“He’s doing a good job,” said councilor Bill Nechero, who along with Jay Azua and Allan Landavazo have formed a support team for Mendoza.

The odd man out, as he has been many times during his 16 years on the council, has been Pat Butler, who has been the only one on the council to speak out against the removal of city officials, who, in his mind, were a great deal more qualified than the ones that are in office now.

“This administration has eliminated the institutional memory of the city government,” he said.

It should be pointed out, however, that — to a great extent — what Mendoza has done in replacing high-level city officials is similar to what happened in he first few months of the Rosebrough administration when both the city manager and a police chief were replaced. But in both of these cases, the city went outside for replacements while Mendoza chose from within, leading to accusations that he was making the change only to provide his supporters with jobs.

Mendoza has denied these charges but admitted that he feels it is better to appoint someone who knows the problems of Gallup whether than getting someone outside Gallup who doesn’t know the area.

He has come under criticism for his appointment of Gerald Herrera, who came to his job with no city government experience, to be his city manager.

This appointment led to a great deal of criticism from the media, especially when Herrera said shortly after he was appointed that he would not be talking to the press until he had a chance to get acquainted with the job and the issues he would be facing.

“I think he’s going to be a good city manager,” Mendoza said and in recent weeks, Herrera has been answering questions from the press and has been given good marks from various city departments heads for taking the time to learn about the ins and outs of running the city government. At the council sessions, he may not know the answer to all of the questions but he makes sure that the department directors who do know are available to answer the questions.

But Herrera has yet to win Butler over. “I haven’t said three words to him yet,” he said. The biggest question Butler said he has about the Mendoza administration deals with where it is going.

“Exactly what are his goals, his plans?” he said.

That question gets to the biggest problem that Mendoza has had to face since becoming mayor — the lack of money to fund any major new projects.

“We have money to carry on city services,” said Herrera recently, “but beyond that ... ”

The problem as he and Mendoza pointed out in a press conference held about a month ago is that the previous administration used up all of the city’s bonding capability and left the city in a position where much of the revenue that is coming in has been pledged to pay off these bonds.

When I came in, I learned the city was in debt,” he said. “I’m not blaming anyone but it’s something we have had to deal with.”

Landavazo agreed, saying in a recent interview that he felt that the money that was spent during the Rosebrough administration went for good purposes — improving waterlines and providing a better quality of life for many residents.

But he and Mendoza both admit that it would have been nice to have a few million dollars just floating around to use for the benefit of the city.

After all, Mendoza has a reputation of thinking big.
While he was on the county commission, it was Mendoza’s vision that led to the construction of the new county government building, improvements to the old courthouse and the development of what has become the courtyard square. And in all of these cases, he did it with a lot of opposition.

At that press conference a month ago, Mendoza continued to say that the city’s debt right now stands at about $84 million, a figure that Rosebrough and others in his administration dispute. But Mendoza said what the former administration doesn’t take into account is the $27 million in interest the city will have to pay on those bonds.

Mendoza has some options — increasing the gross receipts tax by a quarter cent or refinancing some of the bonds to leverage some $6 million in new bonding capacity — but for right now, he’s content with spending his time thinking of ways of increasing revenues and cut waste.

If he does come up with more funds, he said that it will be used to improve infrastructure.

He’s also, he said, mayor 24/7, meaning that he’s available at all times to helping people who may have a problem or other with some aspect of the city government.

“I’m happy being mayor,” pointing that he has been retired for the past 10 years after more than 35 years in the insurance business.

He spends at least 20-25 hours a week — mostly in the mornings and early afternoon — in his office and has an open-door policy, willing to meet anyone on any subject to see if he can help.

“I’m not sure I can help everyone but I will get them to the right person in the city government who can help them,” he said.